Abstract
One goal of poverty lawyers should be to seek to apply "established" legal theory in ways
which redound to the benefit of their clients. Recognizing that most basic contract law was not
established with the lives of poor people in mind, it thus becomes both the province and the
responsibility of poverty lawyers to seek creative applications. This article attempts to meet that
obligation. It examines the social problem of low-income households' inability-to-pay for public
utility service and illustrates how attorneys can utilize contract law's mitigation of damages
principle to benefit low-income households.